Free Love Him to Death by Tanya Landman Page A

after all those rows and threats – it’s too obvious. What if she’s been set up?”
    “Set up?” echoed Graham. “Well, I suppose anything’s possible… But who could be responsible for plotting something so ingenious? What would their motive be? To frame Angelica, you’d have to really hate her.”
    “And a jealous person
would
. A jealous person who’s madly in love with Bill … Josie hated Angelica enough to kill her, didn’t she? You could see it in her eyes. Only then she died first and now both of them are out of the frame. Did you see how Tessa looked at Bill just now?” I asked, forging on before he could reply. “She’s besotted with him, I’m sure of it. At first I thought she must have fallen for him once she’d got the job, but what if it was before? What if she’s been obsessed with him since she was a kid, like Josie was? Graham, do you remember what your mum said to Tessa when we arrived?”
    Graham answered me with a passable imitation of his mum. “What a job to land! There are people who’d kill for an opportunity like that.” His eyes narrowed shrewdly. “And then Tessa mentioned that Bill’s former PA had died in an accident…”
    “Well, maybe he didn’t! Maybe Tessa committed murder to get the job! She’s not a celebrity – it was probably the only way she could get close to Bill. And then killing Josie … framing Angelica… What a neat way to get rid of your rivals!”
    “And Ruby? Sizal?” asked Graham. “How do they fit in?”
    “I don’t know,” I sighed. “Of course, we can’t prove that either of those
were
murders. The doctor might actually be right. And even if he’s not, it only strengthens the case against Angelica. She’s the only one who might have wanted them dead. Maybe that was a good enough reason for the murderer to do it.”
    We’d now reached Sally’s room. She’d locked it but luckily there was a door that connected through from Graham’s. Once inside, Graham wasted no time in switching on the computer.
    “OK,” he said grimly. “Where shall we start?”
    “Bill Strummer,” I said. “News items. There’s got to be something about that PA’s accident.”
    There was so much coverage about Bill and Josie that it took ages to find anything. Some of the Z-list guests had clearly been making use of their phones – there were already pages and pages of photos of the wedding and last night’s party, and it was half an hour before we managed to discover anything about Bill’s old assistant. Then we found a small entry that described how a man called Mick Tucker had been tragically killed by a herd of stampeding cattle back in April of this year. He’d been employed as PA to Bill Strummer for the previous six months. Tessa had told us the truth: the coroner had recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.
    “Another accident,” I muttered. “Do you remember what Angelica said when we found her with Sizal? Natural causes, just like the others. She didn’t just say ‘like Ruby’, she said
others
. Plural. Why didn’t I see it then? She must know something about Mick’s death. We need to talk to her right now, before she gets carted off by the police.”
    “She may be innocent of murder,” Graham warned, “but I believe she’s in a highly unstable condition. Besides, Tessa has locked her up. Gregor Ravavich is standing guard outside her door – and he’s massive. We can’t possibly get to her.”
    “Oh really?” I said. “Are you sure about that?” I steered him out of Sally’s room, through his, and across the landing to mine. I threw open my window and pointed. “That’s Angelica’s balcony. All we have to do is jump.”
    Graham peered over the window ledge and paled. It was a good four-metre drop, and if I hadn’t thought it was our only hope of solving several murders, I’d never have suggested it. But as far as I could see, we had no choice.
    Graham may not be a big fan of extreme sports, but in an emergency he